Catheter ablation is a well established treatment option for patients with atrial fibrillation refractory to antiarrhythmic drugs. Published data in the literature suggest that success rate of atrial fibrillation ablation is relatively favorable, but few data are available on the very long term(more than 3 years) follow up. We aimed to review the literature to evaluate the very long term success of catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation according to the type of atrial fibrillation, ablation strategies, comorbidities, success definitions and intensity of monitoring. Summarizing the results of mostly retrospective analyses, we can conclude that long term freedom from atrial fibrillation is achievable and maintainable over 2-3 years or even more with mild increases in arrhythmia recurrence over the time.